A Tea Party with My Girls and a Pretty Flower Craft

Earlier this year, Jamie and I took a 21st anniversary trip to England. It was so fun to show him around some of my favorite places. We visited Bath and Winchester---which you all know are old favorites of mine; and Salisbury, which was new to us both. Along the way, I picked up a few fun things to enjoy in a summertime tea party with my girls. God has blessed us with five fabulous daughters---I'm so thankful! 

I'd been saving this pretty jar of Sarahbeth's Orange Apricot Marmalade since receiving it from a dear family friend in the Spring. My name is Sarah Elizabeth so this was a special gift in a couple of ways. I'd also saved out three pretty tea cup and saucer sets from some things my Mom gave me and passed them down to my three youngest girls who'd not yet received their own set from me. This one with the pretty wild blossoms went to Brenna, my six year old.

Our party gave me the chance to use some gifts I'd received over the year, like this hot air balloon teapot and wildflower pot from Jamie. My mom gave me the flowered dish, and Jamie picked up this delicious summer tea blend from Gillards in Bath. It smells just like a strawberry Starburst---ha!

I made several  yummy tea treats like this Victoria Sponge and some small scones and sandwiches. Jamie had bought me a tin of shortbread cookies at Marks and Spencer in Winchester so I served them from the top of the tier. I also took the opportunity to use some of the vintage cutlery my great grandmother saved for me and shared some of my memories of her with the girls during our chat time. 

I also made my signature Cucumber Flowers---a family favorite! 

After we snacked and chatted, I shared a little flower craft with the girls. 

After cutting tissue paper squares, I showed them out to wrap them around the end of a pencil to form a flower bud.

We drew branches on a sheet of cardstock paper and glued the buds to the branches.

I made a special memory branch and had each of the girls write their names on it. Now it's hanging in my library. I love it!

The season is changing and summer will probably be gone by this time next week. (Oh Lord, please!! Ha!) I'm happy we made some fun memories over the season!

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Happy Homemaker Monday

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

Motivate Me Monday 

Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom
You're the Star
A Pinch of Joy
Creative Monday

Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 

Slowing Down a Little...Finally!

 

Hello friends! Welcome to The Homemaking Party! It's roasty, toasty, hot and humid in NW Arkansas today but I'm hanging out in our well air conditioned library tonight and feelin' fine! Ha! Life is finally slowing down a bit for me and I feel like I want to stay close to home and do homey things. We are starting school July 9, since we've been off since April, and I'm just feeling really excited to be back in our comfortable routine of home life. I traveled to Oregon in April and England in May (I know, still no photos up...sorry!) and then there's been summer camps and missions trips and...whew!

These three guys are in Honduras this week, ministering at an orphanage and at a school. From the pictures I'm seeing come over Facebook and IG, they're having a great time and really enjoying those sweet Honduran kids!

Lynzie has been house sitting for the youth pastors who took the kids to Honduras and Selah stayed with a friend last night so it was just me and the four littles this morning. We decided to have a little adventure. We went to Walmart to buy lunch (my kids think Lunchables are gold since I buy them so rarely!) and then made a library stop.

After library time, we headed for the park. They rode bikes, took walks (hikes!), played baseball, and laid around panting from the heat. We had an early picnic lunch and then went home for a long nap!

My kids love an opportunity to use a lunch box...one of those cool things like riding on a school bus that public schoolers get to do. Ha! Here Brenna is dreaming about what's inside her box. We were out so early but I wouldn't let them eat until 11. Next time we'll pack breakfast instead!

Our Rose of Sharon bush is in full bloom and hosting all kinds of neat insects and birds. We mainly have these orange not-actually-ladybugs, hummingbirds, zillions of bees, and several kinds of butterflies. Our road is so quiet so I love to stand out on the porch and just listen to the bush buzzing. It's at least nine feet tall and at least that wide and just full of probably a hundred or more different creatures at a time. I think I'll make it the focus of a nature study when we start back to school.

Well friends, hope all is well in your worlds! Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party!

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A Band-Aid Box Story Craft

Hello Friends! Welcome to the Homemaking Party! 

This week, Lynzie is away from home until Friday and the teens are at teen camp---which means it's just me and the four littles during the days! Wow, such a different dynamic! 

We're doing some fun crafts and things this week and I thought I'd share one with you all.

 

Years ago, (like 15 or more) I was at a yard sale and found all these metal Band-Aid boxes for sale. I instantly remembered a craft I did as a four year old in Kindergarten and knew I had to grab them so I could do this project with my littles. Those littles are now almost grown but, thankfully, I've got another group of littles who are still little enough to enjoy this!

My mom had some rolls of register tape at a later yard sale so I snatched them up and all these supplies have been hiding away for a really long time. Today was their day!

When I was in Kindergarten at Heppner Elementary School in Heppner, Oregon, my teacher, Ms. Webber, led us in making Band-Aid box stories. This was about 1984 and Johnson & Johnson was still selling Band-Aids in metal boxes in "those days". I posted a teaser on my social media today and a friend joked that those lethal metal boxes were designed to sell more Band-Aids. That cracked me up...but really, now they're in paper boxes, so there's always the risk of a nasty paper cut! Genius moves on their part...hahaha!

Anyway, back to the story... So, as you can see, super trendy tiny me wrote a story about Rainbow Brite and her horse, Starlight. 

The kids loved seeing and hearing my story and thought I was just as adorable as I really was... But then they were ready to get started on their own stories!

Some of the kids chose to cover the outside of their boxes first. I had a huge box of decorative paper to choose from, but everyone went with solid colors and decided to decorate them on their own with drawings and coloring.

Some of the kids chose to write out their stories on register tape first. These two wrote stories about Doctor Who, their newest obsession.

Kynthia wrote a story about Leia from Star Wars. Once they were done with their stories, they rolled them up and fit them perfectly into the little boxes.

Here's Avalon's finished story, along with a matching TARDIS box. Very cool.

This was a super fun, easy, and creative craft. I'm so glad we recreated one of my favorite Kindergarten memories! Perhaps you'll find some vintage Band-Aid boxes at a yard sale and make one of your own, too!

Thanks for stopping by the Homemaking Party! Have a great week!

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Field Trips to the Joplin History Museum, the Titanic Exhibit, and a Farm!

Hello Friends! Wow, well this has really been a week of getting out of the house---and it's only just begun! I spent Monday getting my hair done, getting groceries, and doing several other errands. Tuesday night, we took the kids to the Joplin History and Mineral Museum for a special exhibit. The museum is hosting a small Titanic exhibit through Saturday so we made the quick trip north to check it out. 

We'd never been to this museum and were pleasantly surprised about all the cool things there were to see. Joplin has a (literally!) rich mining history and many minerals and machines were on display in this small museum. Here's Liam explaining to me that this amazing "cave" we were in was probably a real life mine at one time and once the people moved on to another mine, they turned this one into a museum! Ha! The displays really were very well done---but were housed inside an unassuming very much twentieth century building. I just let him believe what he wanted to, though...

Afterward, we took the kids to Wendy's and treated them to dinner and Frostys. Most of the kids had never had a Frosty so it was a life-changing experience...

This morning we got up bright and early to visit a local farm. The dear people at this farm put a TON of work, time, and money into hosting our group of about 100 homeschool parents and students! The kids learned a lot about running a farm and taking care of horses. It was a great experience for them!

I spent most of the morning with the two littlest girls as everyone was divided into groups by age. Kynthia seemed to take to the horses easily and really enjoyed grooming them.

It was a cool and windy day---just right for me...but I guess I'm not really a Southern girl, now am I? 

All these sweeties are such a joy to take places. They're obedient and respectful and very thankful and appreciative. Tomorrow we're going to visit a friend who was injured and had surgery and hasn't been able to attend church for a couple months. After that, we've got our Good Friday service, Easter activity day on Saturday, Easter Sunday...and then two of the boys and I are headed to Oregon for a week! More on that later...but is anyone else feeling as busy as me this week? Ha!! Oh well, it's a blessing to have fun things to do and fun people to do them with!

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Daddy's Homeschool Chemistry Lessons

Good Morning! Welcome to The Homemaking Party!

Just want to put up a THANK YOU to everyone who left such sweet comments on my update post last week. You were all so sweet and encouraging! I'm feeling really motivated and encouraged to get back to the heart of blogging and building my community of blogging friends!

Last weekend, Daddy started something new in our homeschool---Chemistry! Jamie works much more than full time, week after week, serves as a board member and in worship ministry at our church, and still makes time to be present in the lives of his nine children. I'm so thankful!!

He doesn't usually do planned out lessons with the kids, but when we recently discussed the serious lack of advanced science in our homeschool, he really stepped up to the plate. I'm good with nature study discussions and activities pertaining to whatever we're doing outside on a given day, but I was a Chemistry drop-out in high school and have never felt like I could (or should!) teach these higher level science subjects.

About a year ago, a friend told me about a new curriculum she was trying out called The Good and the Beautiful. It sounded like a pretty wholesome thing so I decided to check it out. Ha! The day I went to the site, they were offering a one-day free printable of their entire brand new Chemistry course! Woo Hoo! I printed it out and put it in a pretty binder...and handed it over to Jamie. Ha!!

Our first lesson was a general overview of Chemistry and featured an experiment where we caused marker colors to separate out on wet coffee filters.

We first guessed what would happen when we got four different colors wet...then we drew those colored circles on coffee filters and put just the tips into water to see what would happen.

The colors spread out and separated into different shades...and even some surprise colors!

Everyone got in on the lesson---from me and Lynzie, the grown ladies of the house, to Kynthia and Brenna, who are six and seven and not yet doing formal lessons. I figured I'd get in on this teaching and then I'd feel better about reteaching it to the youngers when they're in high school.

Once the kids' filters were dry and they'd recorded all their observations, they stored their pretty colored filters in a notebook. We're looking forward to Saturday morning when Jamie will have lesson number two ready to go through. It's days like these that reinforce that homeschooling (and any family learning opportunities, really) is more about the time spent and the memories made than any intelligence gained. I'm thankful!

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Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers

Grandma's House DIY

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Wonderful Wednesday @ Eclectic Red Barn
Creative Muster
It's a Party
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Wonderful Wednesday

Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner

Home and Garden Thursday

Embracing Change

Grace at Home

I Miss Blogging...and Other Mixed Up Thoughts of the Day

How do you feel about change? Some people love it when the old goes out and the new comes in. My husband is like that. He's always ready to jump into the next technological advancement and he's great when it comes to trying new things.

Me, not so much. The Beatles and the Bible tell us there's a time for everything and that circumstances change, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! If there's one thing I've learned about change though, it's that life would get pretty stagnant without it.

My life started going a different direction a couple years ago and part of that was reflected on this blog. I used to post several times a week and was working with many big name brands. But, you know, that started to get really tedious and pretty soon I'd lost my voice as a blogger. More and more, I had to be the person the brands wanted me to be, and the blog wasn't really mine anymore. I decided to let that go and my plan was to go back to blogging about Jesus and antiques, but that hasn't really happened, has it? I've struggled with bouncing back from that change.

Deeper things have gone on in these two years---things that are big enough to actually require a grieving process. Many of you know we lost a baby in October. I'm about six weeks from the due date of that baby and life is getting reeeeally tough to handle as that time draws closer. I'm ok. I'm getting through it with the love and support of my husband and kids and a couple close friends, but I've got to lean in to feelings of anger, jealousy, and so much sadness, that I don't really want to face.

Happy changes can still bring a time of mourning. That's a new concept to me, but it's so true. Lynzie graduated last April---almost a year ago---and I've been struggling to keep the joy in our homeschool. I'll write more on that later---that one needs a whole post of it's own---but the grief I'm dealing with, even with her still at home, sort of blindsided me.

I'm taking on some new ministry responsibilities in my church---which has brought up some questions for me about identity and callings. While I'm excited about what's ahead, there are some identity things I have to lay down in order to take this road God's got me on...and that's hard.

Why am I writing out these disjointed thoughts? I used to share heart stuff here, back in the days before the sponsored posts took over my life, and I'd like to get back to that. I miss my blogging friends and community. I feel God bringing something new to this blog. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is!

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Lynzie's Turning 19 Tomorrow!! The Homemaking Party

Hello everyone!

This week we're celebrating a very special lady---my oldest daughter, Lynzie, is turning 19 tomorrow!

It's hard to believe at her age I was married and almost expecting her. Time goes by so fast...

Last night I took her out to dinner and to see the new Mary Poppins movie. We loved it! It was just as good as the original. Just fabulous!

Of course, she had to go in costume. This girl is one of a kind, for sure! I sure do love her. If you've got a minute, stop by her blog, Elegant Homemaking, and send her some birthday love!

Happy Birthday Lynzie Mae!

Thanks for stopping by The Homemaking Party! Hope you're having a lovely week!



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An Important Devotional for Women Making Goals

Hello Friends! Welcome to the Homemaking Party!

Wow! I don't know about you but this year seemed to completely fly by for our family! We made lots of great friends and special memories---but there's a big part of me that is saying, slow down! So, New Year Resolution Number One is: stay home more!

Do you make New Year Resolutions? Some years I make an elaborate categorized list of my goals for the upcoming year. Other times, I just pick one thing. However you do it, the important thing is to assess why you feel the need to make a change and then start taking simple, doable steps toward that goal.

I hope you'll check out my devotional for women, Now: Purposeful Steps Toward a More Abundant Life, available in paperback and on Kindle. It's all about taking the steps needed to start living the way you want to and to stop making excuses about why you think you can't. Sound simple? It is! It's a simple little book that you can read through in a day for encouragement or spend time going through it more slowly as a study toward change. It features study questions and prayer topics and is a great gift for yourself or another woman in your life who wants to live a fulfilling life right where she's at!

 Many blessings for your new year! I'm looking forward to great things!



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Finding My Selah -- The Homemaking Party

Selah.

The word Selah is a Hebraic praise term that means, "pause and reflect on God." I first chose that name for our second baby girl when I drove through the town of Selah, Washington one day on my way to Seattle. I remembered my mom telling me they bottled Tree Top Apple Juice there and, as a kid, I always imagined the town smelled like apples (even though it's in a not-so-forested part of the state and actually smells a little sulphuric to me now). Anyway, as I was telling Jamie all this one day and said the name out loud, I realized how pretty it was. In the Pacific Northwest we pronounce it, "see-luh". A pretty name for our new baby---Selah Elizabeth---as Elizabeth is my middle name, too.

Several years later, when we got our baby girl after three boys, I was preparing for her birth and looked into the meaning of her name, Selah Elizabeth. Together the name means, "to pause and reflect on the God of plenty."

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I've spent the last few Christmases redirecting the expectations of my family---and myself. We no longer try to hit every party available, bringing along fancy treats that I skipped making meals to perfect. We no longer lavish each kid with tons of expensive presents that I had to skip paying utility bills to afford. I no longer feel the need to keep up with all the fun and excitement the world wants to inundate me with at Christmas time. All these things are great until they start interfering with my ability to run my home well, stay on budget, or stay sane.

As I've felt a draw to holiness in other areas of my life, I'm feeling a draw to holiness in Christmas. For us, that looks like simplicity. Calm. Thoughtfulness. Focusing on relationships. We want to let God show us who he is in this season, just as we do in every season.

God is not different during Christmas, but sometimes we are different toward him. We make such a big deal about "Keeping Christ in Christmas"---we try to balance that with all the other fun of the season. But if we had been keeping Christ in everything we did the entire year before, that same mindset would carry right into Christmas.

When we have been living in a place of simple calm all year long, it's not hard for that same spirit of peace to translate into our Christmas celebrations. You can't live an overwhelmed, too-busy life all year and expect Christmas time to magically calm down for you.

This morning I sat down in my library to look through yesterday's mail and prepare for today. I sat at my desk and began to get my thoughts together to ask God to direct my day. Before I could say a word, he said to me, "Selah."

Just stop. Just think of me. Pause and reflect. I am the God of Plenty. I have all you need for life and godliness. What do I require of you but to do justly, walk humbly, and love mercy? Just be still and remember me.

Noel, noel, come and see what God has done.

Noel, noel, the story of amazing love. 

The Light of the World, given for us.

Risen for us. We have all we need.

Thanks for linking up at The Homemaking Party. Have a beautiful week!

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Oh My Heartsie Girls

A Call to Mothers of Daughters

Kynthia (7) recently made us a delicious pie!

Ladies, today I want to talk to you about how you're training your daughters.

This post has been brewing in my heart for awhile, but I wanted to be careful about how I went about writing it because this topic hits a nerve with so many.

One day I was in the meat section at Aldi and a couple of women in their 20s were looking at all the different cuts of meat. They were trying to decide what to cook for a get together and one of them said, "Steak sounds so good right now!" The other said, "Yeah, I know. I wish I knew how to cook it." The first girl agreed that she, also, didn't know how to cook it. They then had the same conversation about fish and when I was finished picking out the meat I needed, they were still trying to decide on something to buy. Not because they weren't sure what sounded best, but because they weren't sure how to cook any of it.

So many moms are doing a huge disservice to their daughters without ever meaning to. We teach our daughters that they should focus more on their brains than their looks, we tell them they can be anything they want to be. Some moms encourage their daughters to pursue a college degree and a career. Many who are stay at home moms themselves set their daughters on a track for employment outside the home and think they will have a better life. I'm not here to debate the pros and cons of stay at home moms vs. employed career women. Not today, anyway.

Avalon (9) had an idea for individual meatloaf balls one day so she experimented in the kitchen and they were fantastic!

What I do want to talk to you about is homemaking skills. Here's where things can get kind of judgy judgy so please hear my heart---because some of the women I'm about to describe are some of you readers. This is not an admonition---just an encouragement and something to think and pray about.

In the pursuit to grow their daughters' academic brains, many moms are missing out on the opportunity to train them in basic household management. Whether or not your daughter goes on to be a career woman or a full time homemaker, she is going to need basic life skills. Does your daughter know how to prepare a meal, or even a portion of one, from scratch, with any combination of ingredients available to her? Can she shop for a week's worth of groceries on a budget? Does she know how to change a diaper, check a temperature, or recognize the signs of a baby in distress? Is she familiar with using a toilet plunger? Can she recognize mold and mildew growing on a shower curtain? Does she know when food is spoiled and can she recognize when a cut of meat is cooked enough to eat safely? Would she be able to tell if her house was infested with fleas from her dog or with cockroaches?

Here's a bigger question moms: do you know how to do these things?

These are all basic life skills that everyone will need---whether they work outside the home or decide to stay home. Many parents are concerned about preparing their daughters for a life without a man, should they be abandoned by their partner or not marry at all; however, they mistakenly focus on her education too heavily, at the expense of her life skills. I can't tell you how many women my age have their husbands change the flat tire, fix the leaky faucet, change the moldy shower curtain---I do too, honestly. But if the argument is that they're training daughters for a potential life of singleness, why are they not focusing on the things she'll actually need to know to get through life?

Guys need kitchen skills, too. Our 14 year old son, Cainan, makes fabulous dinner rolls!

Feminism has done such a massive disservice to women, to the home. Again, that's a post (or a nine volume saga) for another day. In pushing their girls out into, what many of us still call a "man's world", mothers have somehow thrown out the baby with the bath water. I don't want to call out specifics because we all have different lifestyles that necessitate certain conveniences at certain times. I just want to give you a general encouragement to pray about how you can be better training your children to do the basic life things that we all encounter day by day. If you feel inadequate, ask someone for help! If you are local, ask ME for help! There are many tutorials and videos online and on blogs for anything you'd ever want to learn.

Family traditions, cozy homes, simple life pleasures---these are not things of the past. They carry on from generation to generation through us women, working outside the home or full time homemakers---all of us who are the hearts of our homes.

Michael Turns 17 Today...

Michael turning 17 feels different than Lynzie turning 17. The older Lynzie gets, the closer she becomes my friend. The more she relates to me, the more she understands me. Our closeness grows, the older she gets.

The older Michael gets, the more independent he becomes. When he turned 16, that gave him the freedom to drive and to get a job. It took him away for several hours, several days a week. This summer, he began serving as the youth worship team leader at church and took on more responsibility on the adult worship team. Now he's gone more than he's home and school lessons feel more like a formality than the interactive, inventive explorations they once were.

Michael turns 17 today. Ever since I got on Facebook in 2009, I have posted a birthday collage of past photos and a message to the special person of the day. This morning I got up to do it and found that his sweet girlfriend, Emily---a Godsend to Michael and to me---had already hit Facebook and Instagram with fantastic photos and special words that are meaningful to them in the beautiful life they're beginning to make for themselves.

I was a little surprised to find that I wasn't a bit jealous---only thankful that she's just as sentimental as I am. I trust this Godly girl with his heart.

Michael turns 17 today and my year of letting go has begun.

In our family, we train our boys for manhood before they hit the "official" age. We want them to be ready to take on all the responsibilities of work, providing, leadership, and ministry that God has designed men to carry. Michael has been going after this dream of manhood since he was about eight years old. It couldn't come fast enough for him; and so I, too, am excited for him to fulfill his dreams.

Michael turns 17 today, but I know I'll still catch glimpses of my child that remind me of all our happy times of the past. He still leaves his clothes lying around---but now, instead of it being his blue bathrobe, it's his blue jacket and I charge him $5.00 for leaving it out...again. He still requests a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and Reese's on top---only now, me and Emily's stepmom look forward to eating it more than he does. And he still loves these birthday pancakes I'm making for him right now, and will continue to make whenever he brings his family to visit Grandma. I sure hope Emily likes chocolate chip pancakes.

Dear Christmas Mothers -- Inspiring Letters to Homemakers -- Book Review and a Giveaway!

Good Morning Ladies! Hope you're all having a happy week so far. I spent yesterday decorating for Christmas, reading, and just relaxing after a week of celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and my father. He started back to Oregon yesterday morning---please pray with me for his safe return home.

Last week I enjoyed reading through this new publication from The Legacy of Home Press, Dear Christmas Mothers by Mrs. Connie Hultquist. My dear friend, homemaking mentor, and fellow blogger, Mrs. Sharon White, let me know about the book and sent me a copy for review. 

In Dear Christmas Mothers, Mrs. Hultquist shares holiday letters she wrote in the early 2000s, encouraging homemakers to make a happy Thanksgiving and Christmas for their families. She gives  ideas to make one's home cozy on a very limited budget and offers a couple recipes for favorite treats.

The book is "written as spoken" and that's part of the charm. The very informal style of the letters allows the reader to imagine she's chatting at a cozy coffee table with a friend.

A favorite theme of the book is the call to Christian homemakers to create a sense of community and mentorship. The importance of mentorship has been revealed to me in so many ways this last year that I can't help believing God is leading me into a season of more opportunities to bless the lives of the women around me. I'm excited about that! Here is a favorite quote regarding our Titus 2 calling:

"We ain't supernatural. We can't make things happen. But we can stand with our arms raised up like Moses so that God can defeat the army against us. Just stand, dear saints, with arms lifted to Jesus, for in Him comes your help...and when your arms feel tired, let the saints come along and help you hold up your arms of faith." (Dear Christmas Mothers, pg. 67)

I hope you'll check out Dear Christmas Mothers on Amazon.com, as well as the other publications from The Legacy of Home Press. I've been blessed by each of the homemaking resources Mrs. White has offered the past few years. I know you will be, too!

The author is giving away one free copy of Dear Christmas Mothers to one of my readers. To win, simply leave a comment telling me something about your Christmas homemaking plans for this season. Giveaway ends Saturday December 8.

Golden Moments by Gail Golden --- An Encouraging Gift Idea -- Book Review

Hey ladies! Hope you're all having a fantastic week so far! We had a lovely visit with my Dad over Thanksgiving week. He drove all the way out from Oregon to visit for the week---what a blessing! 

I know it's been slow going around here as far as posts go. Years ago, I made a commitment to be a "no obligation blogger" and promised myself never to apologize to my readers for taking breaks from blogging. Still, I know things have been a bit inconsistent the last year or so but I'm hoping to get back in the game here because I miss the fellowship with you all!

One of my favorite things to blog about is books and I'm thrilled to share the dream come true book of one of my sweet readers, Gail Golden. 

Gail read and reviewed my own book, Now, a couple years ago and said it encouraged her to follow her own dreams of publishing. In August, she sent me a copy of her beautiful work, Golden Moments, and I've spent the last couple days reading through each inspiring chapter.

Golden Moments is a collection of encouraging short stories Gail calls, "aha moments"---times that God makes himself known to us as we're going about our every day lives. Does the Lord speak to you in little ways throughout your day? It's such a comfort to me to know He's right with me in every moment and I'm thankful for the way He pushes through the loudness and busyness of my days to speak to me.

You will be inspired and encouraged as you read through these testimonies of God's goodness. Each one is written in a way that is relatable. What a blessing to see Gail's dream come to fruition. I encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself, as well as a few stocking stuffers for loved ones. You can find your copy at Amazon.com. Also, do visit Gail's blog, Gail-Friends, for more encouragement.